The volume of retail sales fell by 2.2% in the year to May following a drop of 5.2% in the month from April, according to the Central Statistics Office. These are the biggest declines since the CSO began measuring sales volumes in 1995.
The value of sales, which includes the effect of prices, rose by 0.1% on an annual basis, but showed a monthly fall of 5.7%, the sharpest fall since April 1994. The CSO says the single biggest factor in the falls is lower car sales, but early figures for May show falls in sales across most areas.
Sales fell by 1.4% in the three months from March to May compared with the previous three months.
Eugene Kiernan of Irish Life Investment Managers says that, given that the economic bad news has increased in recent weeks, the outlook for retail sales for the summer is looking depressing. He says that will feed into poor Exchequer returns, with lower VAT receipts in particular.
